When KGFJ went on the air in 1927, the radio station explained that its call letters stood for "Keeping Good Folks Joyful." Especially good insomniac folks, since it was L.A.'s first 24-hour station. KGFJ stayed on the air at AM (1230) until 1996.
Less fortunate were the founders of Orange County's first radio station, whose unwieldy slogan was "KFAW: Kept From Awful Winters." The 10-watt operation folded in 1925 after just three years, having received a chilly reception from the estimated 1,500 radio owners in Orange County.
Today, in the age of digital radios, media conglomerates and brand names, call letters are de-emphasized. Some stations reveal their IDs only at the top of the hour as required by law, often "nearly buried among a cluster of commercials," historian Jim Hilliker wrote for laradio.com.
For instance, you have to listen carefully to find out that "93.1 JACK-FM" is KCBS or that "MY FM 104.3" is KBIG.
A colorful era has passed.
In the industry's formative years, when the government serially assigned call letters, stations would advertise sometimes quaint or wacky slogans to help listeners remember the IDs.
KHJ settled on "Kindness, Happiness, Joy" and broadcast the singing of three canaries with those names.
"I read that they also considered 'Knowledge, Happiness, Judgment,' " Hilliker said. Despite the lack of "judgment," the station survives at AM (930).
Other early stations, which have since vanished from the ether, strained to be creative. KGEF tried out "Keep God Ever First" and then "Kind Gentle Empathetic Friend."
Plainly, the government policy of beginning call letters in the West with a "K" was a problem for local sloganeers.
KOG experimented with "Kinema on Grand" -- it was in a theater in downtown L.A. -- while Avalon-based KFWO's "Katalina for Wonderful Outings" shut down after three years.
Radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Echo Park, saw the importance of call letters for her station.
Hilliker, searching in the National Archives, found a 1924 telegram in which McPherson asked the Department of Commerce if it might "favor us" by switching the station ID from KFNC to "the more appropriate" KFSG, the initials of Foursquare Gospel. Sister Aimee's wish was granted; the church broadcast until 2003.
